Tuesday, August 25, 2009

truckle \TRUHK-uhl\, intransitive verb:

1. To yield or bend obsequiously to the will of another; to act in a subservient manner.
2. A small wheel or roller; a caster.

Truckle is from truckle in truckle bed (a low bed on wheels that may be pushed under another bed; also called a trundle bed), in reference to the fact that the truckle bed on which the pupil slept was rolled under the large bed of the master. The ultimate source of the word is Greek trokhos, "a wheel."

manther

• The male version of a cougar; an older man who preys on younger women.

"Mr. Smith is such a manther, did you see his new girlfriend? She's got to be less than a quarter of his age. Awesome."

"That Smith geezer was hitting on my granddaughter at the banquet. What a hideous manther."

Trivia
On computer and typewriter keyboards, what letter is between the c and b?

• The v.

Today in History:

• New Orleans: was founded by French colonists (1718)
• Great Moon Hoax: the first of six articles appeared in The New York Sun, discussing a variety of animal life supposedly discovered on the moon (1835)
• English Channel: was swum for the first time, by Matthew Webb (1875); he died eight years later attempting a swim in the rapids beneath Niagara Falls
• Paris: was liberated by the Allies in World War II (1944)
• Aaliyah: singer/actor died in a plane crash in the Bahamas (2001)

Today's Birthdays:

• Althea Gibson (1927-2003): tennis champ; athletes Rollie Fingers (63), Albert Belle (43), Robert Horry (39) and Marvin Harrison (37) share this birth date
• Elvis Costello (55): rocker singer/songwriter; plus musicians Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), Gene Simmons (60), Rob Halford (58), Billy Ray Cyrus (48) and Jo Dee Messina (39)
• Tim Burton (51): director, Beetlejuice; also, filmmakers Hugh Hudson (73), John Badham (70) and Marshall Brickman (68)
• Blair Underwood (45): actor, In Treatment; also, actors Mel Ferrer (1917-2008), Sean Connery (79), Tom Skerritt (76), Anthony Heald (65), Anne Archer (62), John Savage (60), Claudia Schiffer (39), Eric Millegan (35) and Rachel Bilson (28)
• Rachael Ray (41): TV chef; also, TV hosts Monty Hall (88) and Regis Philbin (78)